The Counties of Denmark (Danish: Danmarks amter) were former subdivisions of metropolitan Denmark, used primarily for administrative regions, with each county having its own council with substantial powers. Originally there had been twenty-four counties, but the number was reduced to roughly fourteen in 1970 - the number fluctuated slightly over the next three decades. In 2006 there were thirteen traditional counties as well as three municipalities with county status (the island of Bornholm, which was a county until 2003, became a regional municipality with county powers). On January 1, 2007, the counties were replaced by five larger regions.

Greenland and the Faroe Islands are also part of the Danish Realm, but both enjoy internal autonomy. Both are largely self-governing, and each community sends two members to the Danish Parliament. The Faroe Islands obtained self-government in 1948; from 1816 to 1948 the islands had the status of a Danish county.

Contents

A government proposal in 2004 called for the counties to be replaced by five large regions with health care as their main responsibilities; two regions in Jutland, two regions in Zealand and one region covering Funen and the southernmost part of Jutland. The proposal also required the municipalities to merge reducing them from 271 to about 100, with a minimum of 20,000 inhabitants in each municipality, although some exceptions were made to this rule. From 2007 25 municipalities have fewer than 30,000 inhabitants each, with the average number of inhabitants being over 55,500 per municipality. Only the United Kingdom and Ireland have more populous entities at the lowest political administrative level.

The reform was confirmed by the Danish Parliament on February 24, 2005, and the counties were abolished on January 1, 2007.

Note: Ringkjøbing County officially used a different spelling from its capital city, Ringkøbing.Ertholmene east of Bornholm are not and have never been a part of a municipality or county or (from 2007) region. Statistics Denmark calls them Christiansø and Frederiksø, named after the two inhabited islets.They are included in numbers for Denmark (92 inhabitants;0.39 square kilometers). Land area of Denmark: around 42394 square kilometers.